Cruising seminars, ghost ship sighting, cleverest autopilot, more...

If you are having difficulty reading this email or would like to change language - CLICK HERE. To respond to this email CLICK HERE

17 Oct 2013

Cruising seminars, ghost ship sighting, cleverest autopilot, more...

There are plenty of sailing schools teaching you how to sail a boat. However, knowing how to sail your boat is merely the beginning when you start to go cruising, and there are hardly any seminars or schools to advise on the myriad of extra issues you need to grapple with when you contemplate departing your home waters.

No matter where you are on the coast of Australia or in New Zealand John and Lyn Martin of the Island Cruising Association are trying to remedy that. A wealth of down-to-earth cruising information gained from their 100,000 miles of cruising and a natural ability to impart information combine to make their coming seminars right round the coast of Australia and in New Zealand a powerful aid to your cruising. Read all the details in this week's edition below.

Judgement in close quarters sailing is not an exact science, and skippers of sailing boats are often required to make a call quickly. It's bad enough to know later that you made the wrong call, it's worse if that call has resulted in severe damage to your boat, but how much worse for that single moment of bad judgement to be flashed around the world and watched by a million viewers.

The moment of (very) bad judgement caught on a thousand cameras .. .

There's more. For one British Royal navy sailor it just keeps getting worse. He is no longer in the Navy and he is now in court facing prosecution by the Maritime and Coastguard Agency (MCA) in Britain on a number of negligence charges. Personally, I can't help feeling for the sailor – we've all made bad calls, though perhaps in more private ways.

Speaking of judgement, John Jamieson is back this week to talk about judging the safe speed according to the conditions you and your sailing boat find yourself in. Even if you know these answers, a reminder is a refresher...

Four months have passed since schooner Nina was heard of in the Tasman Sea, but the families have not given up. Their private search firm has now found what could be evidence of the boat still afloat near Norfolk Island. It's worth remembering that a New Zealand yacht, Air Apparent, abandoned by its crew in 2008 in the Tasman Sea, was also sighted months later drifting near Norfolk Island and ended up a year later beached on the north east coast of Australia.

Faint hope revived after four months - could this be Nina still afloat? .. .

Is technology taking all the adventure out of cruising? This week we tell of an innovative autopilot which calibrates itself and teaches itself about the characteristics and quirks of the boat, without any intervention from the sailor. There's also a report on how EPIRBs are gradually, thanks to new satellites and reporting stations, getting more accurate more quickly.

Much more too, cruising news from home and around the world, so browse down the headlines to find your interest, and, with lots of warm weather on the way...

Marine Industry companies, Clubs and Associations have asked can they received their own customised version of our Sail-World news feed. The answer is yes; customised in content, news category, for example or region of the world and appearance.

Change the frequency of newsletters, from once a week to a monthly newsletter. Change from html (graphics & pictures) newsletters to text only newsletter, (best for slow connections, mobile phones and PDA's etc. Change from Sail-World New Zealand Newsletters to Sail-World Cruising International Newsletters etc. Temporarily inactivate your subscription for a period, when you will be on holidays etc. or change to text for the same period. Or even (gasp) unsubscribe.Change your newsletter subscription profile here or take off list